What is Cheerleading?

Cheerleading is a sport in which the participants cheer for their team as a form of encouragment. The cheerleaders show their spirit by shouting slogans in order to entertain spectators at sporting events. Cheerleading contains components to entertain people with tumbling, dancing, jumping and stunting.

History behind Cheerleading

Cheerleading first originated as a male activity only. The first thing that started cheerleading is a student that went to the University of Minnesota, Johnny Campbell. He got up from the seats at a sporting event and chanted "Rah, Rah, Rah! Ski-u-mah, Hoo-Rah!" Then it became more popular, and they were starting to make cheerleading teams. Later on, women were aloud to join also. As cheerleading grew they started adding many elements like we have today. With megaphones, arm motions for the crowds, signs poms and basic jumps, tumbling, and stunts (lifts)

Saftey Concerns

As the popularity of cheerleading was growing, it came with an increased of saftey concerns. Back then, there was no one set of specific set of rules that limited the skills being perfromed, even though there were educational training organizations for cheerleading. In the early 1980's, UCA published a set of saftey guidelines for cheerleaders. After many programs created rules, serious injuries declined and awareness grew. Now, cheerleading is in the lower quarter of injury rates in highschool sports.